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With Ohio Supreme Court Ruling, Medicaid Expansion Set to Go Forward

The Ohio Controlling Board in October voted to accept federal money to expand Medicaid eligibility.
The Ohio Controlling Board in October voted to accept federal money to expand Medicaid eligibility.

After the Medicaid expansion vote before the Controlling Board in October, the lawsuit was filed and then fast-tracked to get a ruling by the end of the year – so there were no oral arguments before the justices.

Four of them agreed that the Controlling Board had the authority to approve spending $2.5 billion in federal money on Medicaid expansion. The other three dissenting justices wanted to dismiss the case.

Maurice Thompson of the conservative 1851 Center for Constitutional Law filed the lawsuit on behalf of six Republican lawmakers and two anti-abortion groups. He said in an interview in October this was the largest dollar request the Controlling Board has ever heard, and he also felt it was as the largest policy request ever. And he felt the constitutionality of the vote was in doubt.

“The only reason the Controlling Board’s decisions are constitutional ever and at all is because the Controlling Board is required to act consistent with the General Assembly’s intent," Thompson said.

But in the majority opinion, Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor wrote that lawmakers’ intent wasn’t clear in the final budget, since Gov. John Kasich vetoed a provision that had passed the House and Senate banning Medicaid expansion, but the legislature could have overridden that veto.

Meanwhile, Medicaid expansion has been proceeding, and while its future is certain for now, it’s not forever, according to Brian Rothenberg with Progress Ohio, who talked about that in an interview in October.

“The bottom line is this isn’t going to cost Ohioans money for the next three years," Rothenberg said. "If it does go up or there’s a problem with it, it’s not a permanent activity. It can be changed. We can alter it. It’s only as long as the budget lasts."

That’s something that possibly could have been changed with a ballot issue that Medicaid expansion backers wanted to put before voters. But they announced earlier this month that they were abandoning that effort, saying the Controlling Board’s vote rendered their initiative unnecessary.

Nick Castele was a senior reporter covering politics and government for Ideastream Public Media. He worked as a reporter for Ideastream from 2012-2022.